Has writing "philosophy" in the lyrical theme box ever helped anyone form an image of what the lyrics is about? 937 bands have this, often thrown around, word as their lyrical theme at the moment. I randomly clicked on a couple of those and read some lyrics, and I don't really see what they have to do with philosophy.

Is that "description" really worth using, except from when the lyrics really are about ideas of the sort you'll study on philosophy courses? That sort of lyrics is much more rare than what a search on the Archives today may have people think.

Good point, I've noticed this as well. Those bands' lyrics should be looked at to see what they are actually about. Most bands who's lyric field says "philosophy" probably aren't singing about hegel's dialectic or kant's categorical imperative.

I think when combined with other lyrical themes "philosophy" can be a legit and helpful theme. It usually indicates that the band discusses social or personal themes on an abstract and fundamental way, raising questiones that usually make the listener think about these issues. At least that's what I experienced with bands that have the "philosophy" tag.

Do they really do that, or are you imagining things?

That's not my impression. But even if that's the case, they should have "social issues", "society", "political", "emotions", "spirituality", or something more specific than "philosophy" as description of their lyrics.

Some other bands such as Psychotic Waltz, Lykathea Aflame and Sieges Even are fitting in this category I mentioned, imo. They have abstract themes, but not fictional ones. They tend to discuss the core theme of something... Let's choose "freedom". Unlike many other bands they do not tell a story (real or ficitional) to explain it, but deal with it directly ("What is freedom?" "Is it always good?"...). And this is not always linked to social issues or emotions, so I'd like to keep the tag when it is used in combination with other ones.

Philosophy is a broad term. From Wikipedia:

True, there are bands whose lyrics can hardly be called philosophical, but on the other hand, it doesn't need to be classical philosophy. You can make your request more specific, for example:
http://www.metal-archives.com/search/ad ... ame=#bands
http://www.metal-archives.com/search/ad ... ame=#bands
http://www.metal-archives.com/search/ad ... ame=#bands
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http://www.metal-archives.com/search/ad ... ame=#bands
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http://www.metal-archives.com/search/ad ... ame=#bands
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etc.

The problem with Wikipedia's definition, with "the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group", is that it's no better than Wikipedia's definition of Rammstein as a metal band or nu metal as a sub-genre of metal, which they also base on "casual speech". Gets me thinking of sport journalists who talks about some coach having this or that "football philosophy", when it's obvious that words like "tactics", "strategy", "plan" or "preference" would be more to the point. But they don't sound as nice.

Even if some bands have lyrics that makes "philosophy" a suitable description, it may still be that tons of bands have it in their lyrical theme box because it looks good. Probably the same with alot of those "nihilist", "Nietzschean", "Socratic", etc bands.

However, this may be difficult to solve.

To be fair, I believe that Wikipedia was merely referring to the alternate definition of philosophy, which is a wholly valid contemporary definition of the word whether you'd like it to be or not. From what I've seen, in English, this definition doesn't overlap with the primary definition of "philosophy"; no one uses the secondary meaning of "the ethos, goals and guidelines of a group" and says that it means "philosophy" in the classical, traditional sense, since it's somewhat metaphorical and doesn't really convey the right image once it's disconnected from the group who use it. "Philosophy" and "Iron Maiden's personal philosophy" bring to mind two totally different images, and I doubt a band meaning the latter would present themselves as the former.

While I find "philosophy" to be a valid tag, I echo John_Sunlight's assertion that a little specificity as to what specific ideas/themes lyricized about would help. As others have noted, philosophy is a very broad term which encompasses various schools of thought from a range of traditions with their own respective origins, key ideas, philosophers, et cetera. If a band lyricizes about philosophy, key ideas/concepts written about should accompany the "philosophy" tag. I don't find it too common a problem, as bands which focus on, say, transcendentalism usually receive the proper tag.

On the other hand, some bands focus on many abstract ideas from different traditions which in turn lends itself to syncretism. For instance, let's take Penance. Judeo-Christianity influences a share of their lyrics, but it's hardly the sole facet of the presented themes. Looking at the lyrics on Proving Ground and Parallel Corners, I wouldn't find it surprising to find out the New Age movement influenced their lyrics. I don't believe Penance invented solipsistic concepts and then attempted to pass as lyrical philosophers. They're very introspective, but their deep-seated beliefs and feelings seem to take precedence to one consistent school of thought.

EDIT: Never type when exhausted.

ok, I added "specificity" to Penance's page, since that's what they lyricize about...

Using a sports reference hasn't really helped your case, since most coaches are much deeper than just "tactics". How they train their players, and the values, morals, and other things they teach their players as well...

"Gets me thinking of sport journalists who talks about some coach having this or that "football philosophy", when it's obvious that words like "tactics", "strategy", "plan" or "preference" would be more to the point. But they don't sound as nice."

Also:
Training - either a coach chooses his way of training the players because of how he prefers football to played and want to shape them to fit that style, or out of what he thinks is best to achieve some result. Again, preference and/or strategy is what he's dealing with, not philosophy.

Values/morals - While being a subject of philosophy, it has nothing to do with football, not even if football players are the pupils and football coaches the teachers. So "football philosophy" is still problematic.